Objective: 

Aerobic exercise during pregnancy increases neurogenesis in pups. Maternal deprivation is a forceful stres which affects cognitive function, behaviour and endocrine system permanently during life time in mammals. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise during pregnancy on cognitive impairment and hippocampal cells of pups after maternal deprivation.

Methods: 

Groups: exercised and sedentary mothers. Subgroups: maternal deprived males and females, control. Exercise: before pregnancy 5m/min- 10 min/day/5day. In pregnancy, 30 min/day, 5 days/week,8m/min. Exercise speed was decreased 6m/min-last ten days. 24-hour maternal deprivation stress was applied to 18 days old pups. Performance of learning and memory tests of 26 days old pups were evaluated with Morris water tank.

Results: 

Learning process is impaired in the maternal deprivation group. Exercise during pregnancy blocked the impairment in learning process. Maternal deprivation applied group spent less time in the target quadrant and more time in the opposite quadrant during the recall test. Exercise during pregnancy ameliorated these results. TUNEL+ cell number increased after maternal deprivation, but exercise during pregnancy reversed apoptosis normal. Cell numbers of hippocampal CA1 and CA3 and also in dentate gyrus region decreased in the maternal deprivation group and increased with exercise during pregnancy. In addition, during probe trial it is determined that very strong positive correlation between time spent in target qudrant and cell number of CA3 region and very strong negative correlation between time spent in the opposite quadrant and cell number of CA1 region.

Conclusions: 

These results suggest that regular aerobic exercise during pregnancy has protective effects on hippocampal cells and cognitive functions of pups after maternal deprivation.